


Always On Your Side

by tielan



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Spoilers, Gen, Work In Progress, here be dragons, oh look i did a thing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-10
Updated: 2016-05-10
Packaged: 2018-06-07 12:10:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6803557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tielan/pseuds/tielan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The image was grainy – an old camera that had reset after the blackout, barely used, connected to one of the oldest and most dilapidated tunnels in the complex. It showed two lean figures in black from head to toe, leading Bucky out through a passageway that stretched on and on and on, like a tunnel to a bunker. And he went with them, meek as a lamb, no sign of either the soldier who’d fought or the man who’d run.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Always On Your Side

There was an odd ozonic undertone to the air of sub-level 8 – like a dozen lightbulbs had burned out all at once. The emergency lights were on, though, which made clear enough the bodies of the military police who’d been securing the holding unit, collapsed where they were shot.

Whoever had come through here had been startlingly efficient and coolly calculating – but not lethal.

“No blood,” Sam murmured, kneeling down by the nearest. “He’s still alive.”

Steve touched his fingers to the throat of another, felt the pulse strong and sure. “This one, too.”

Sam stood up, having relieved the MP of his sidearm and paused. “Smells...like someone’s having a barbecue...”

They looked at each other, growing horror in their faces, then moved into the control room in unison, Steve high, Sam low. Inside, MPs were slumped over screens and over weapons, half-turned to face whoever had come in before they’d been tranked into unconsciousness.

Smoke wafted in from the next room – the barbecue scent developing a sticky undertone to it which Steve remembered only too well from the war – blood and burning.

“Help...me...”

The psychologist-interrogator was sitting up against the wall – almost propped up. His shoulders heaved in short pants, his hand hovering, clawed, over the handprint burned through his clothing, showing scarlet and raw on his shoulder.

Steve hauled him up, furious at what this guy had started, terrified for Bucky. “What did you do to him? What do you want?”

“To see an empire fall.” The man smiled, bitterness shining through the pain of his burns and the bruises Steve glimpsed on his neck – the crisp prints of Bucky’s metal hand plain and clear in his flesh.

He dropped the man, not particularly caring what happened to him. His focus was on finding Bucky before someone else got to him first – someone who wouldn’t care if he died.

A quick look around showed the room with the containment unit was empty, the door through which they’d brought Bucky’s cell closed and barred. No way out but back through the control room from here. Steve started back towards the control room.

“What the hell was that burn?” Sam muttered as he fell in behind.

“I don’t know, but it’s not good.” Not if they had Bucky.

But they found nothing on their way up – save for a squad of MPs who came upon them in the exit stairwell, and marched them back up to holding.

“Making things worse again,” Nat said as she came in. “No sign of him on the ground floor.”

“Anyone checked the roof?”

Sharon shook her head at Sam. “Helipad’s clear.”

Steve move over to the screen controls and began flicking through the feeds, not bothering to ask permission.

“How the hell does the Winter Soldier just up and _vanish_?” Sam muttered.

“He’s a spook.” Stark’s voice lifted from the corner where he’d been scrolling through something on his phone – probably hacking into the feeds. “It’s what they do for a living, and he’s done it longer than any of us have been alive – bar Old Man Rogers.”

Natasha’s eyes narrowed. She straightened and folded her arms over her chest. “What have you found, Tony?”

The smile was almost feline as Stark swivelled to face the room. “You know me so well, Natasha.”

* * *

The image was grainy – an old camera that had reset after the blackout, barely used, connected to one of the oldest and most dilapidated tunnels in the complex.

It showed two lean figures in black from head to toe, leading Bucky out through a passageway that stretched on and on and on, like a tunnel to a bunker. He went with them, meek as a lamb, no sign of either the soldier who’d fought or the man who’d run.

_Obedient_ .

“Where is this?” Steve demanded, looking at Sharon for an answer.

She shook her head. “I don’t know. It’s not familiar...”

When called in, a harried and annoyed building maintenance frowned as he surveyed the feed. “That exit? That leads off down the river.”

Agent Ross scowled. “And it’s not secured? Where does it lead to?”

Stark was flipping through feeds again. “Found it.” He touched something and flicked it up onto the screen.

The trio had reached a doorway with a wheel-locked door, their figures mere shadows in the deep and unfathomable darkness that was almost beyond the reach of the dim emergency light in the ceiling.

“That’s where it goes,” said the maintenance guy, shrugging. “And why it not secured. Nobody uses that way – the door rusted shut during the Cold War.”

Rusted shut it might be, but nobody had ever tried to use the Winter Soldier to open it.

The leader of the trio stepped back, and the other one stepped up, pulling off his gloves and placing his small, bare hands on the hinges of the door. One moment, two, three... Twenty seconds passed, then he moved aside to let Bucky take his turn. There was no sound, but Steve could imagine the din of vibranium pummelling old steel and winced. Another thirty seconds, and a crack of daylight overwhelmed the video visuals, before the light meter recalibrated, picking out details lost in the darkness.

Soft breaths were sucked in as the viewers watching the feed realised Bucky’s cohorts were _female_. It was in the way they moved, the swing of their walk, the sleek curves that hadn’t been obvious on the initial feed, the booted heels that both wore to bring them up to around 5’10” in height.

“The hell?” Tony muttered, the smirk of before wiped blank in puzzled study. “Who’re your friends, Barnes?”

Even as he spoke, Bucky shoved six-inch thick steel out into daylight, creating a gap big enough for a person to get through.

Bucky went first, legs out to find solid ground before he eeled out into the sun, the light skittering down his arm in a violent gleam. A moment later the woman who’d touched the hinges climbed out, long slender legs swinging almost fastidiously over the bottom of the hole, her movements vaguely familiar in a distant kind of way.

Tony leaned in towards the table, his expression oddly intent as the last woman paused.

Then she reached up one hand, and pulled the balaclava from her head, turning to look directly at the camera. And Steve felt his heart lurch as a brief, regretful smile touched her lips before she turned and climbed out into the sunlight.

“Shit." Sam's pithy expletive spoke for more than one person in the room.

Ross was nearly livid. “I want facial recognition on that woman – priority one!”

“Sir, that won’t—” Sharon began, only to be cut short.

“We need to identify her! Run our database – she’s got to be in there somewhere—”

“You don’t need the database,” Natasha interrupted, cool and clipped and just as shocked as the rest of them, although her training hid it better. “Because you’re looking at Maria Hill, formerly of S.H.I.E.L.D, previously with the Avengers Initiative, in the company of Virginia Potts, CEO of Stark Industries, and James Barnes, the Winter Soldier.”

Steve felt like he was standing in Times Square all over again, watching the world spin around him.

He looked at Tony, found the older man staring back, stricken, like he’d been shot by someone he trusted and left to bleed out.

“And good luck finding them,” said Sam.

 


End file.
